one eye and a heartbeat
by auroracode
Summary: Law wasn't afraid of torture, he'd been hurt plenty before and it had never broken him, but he couldn't say the same about if his crew were to be tortured. It wasn't that he was worried about them spilling information, he had confidence in their ability to stay quiet, no what worried him was what he might do


The concept being tortured had never been something that phased Law, it wasn't something that he wanted to have happen to him of course, but he didn't really hold any fear towards being hurt. It wasn't pleasant, but he'd had plenty of experience dealing with pain throughout his life; his lungs and muscles had burned while running from bullets in Flevance, in Spider Miles he'd been bruised and knocked around during training, while traveling with Cora-san the White Lead Disease had wracked his body with pain, at Punk Hazard Vergo had put him through the wringer until he got his heart back, and in Dressrosa he'd been beaten and shot and nearly killed. None of that had managed to break him though and he was confident it never would, but he couldn't say the same about if his crew were to be tortured.

It wasn't that he was worried about them spilling information, he had confidence in their ability to stay quiet, no what worried him was what he might do. Back when he'd been a child fresh from the tragedy of Flevance he'd been filled with anger and hadn't thought he'd ever be able to let himself care about anyone again, not that it mattered to him much given the short amount of time he had left to live, but Cora-san had managed to worm his way into his heart against his will and he'd found himself once again with someone he didn't want to lose. He had lost him though and the cracks that had barely started to smooth themselves out turned jagged again and tore into his heart.

He'd sworn to himself that he wouldn't care again after that, but he hadn't been born a person who could be happy truly being alone and so somehow two bratty teens and a polar bear mink cub had become important to him. As the years passed more nakama had come along and while they couldn't replace those who were gone, they were still invaluably important to him and he wanted to protect them. If there came a time when he had to choose between the Alliance or protecting his crew he knew he wouldn't hesitate to sacrifice the many to save the few, it was selfish and certainly someone nobler than him like Strawhat would try to save both groups, but he couldn't risk losing anyone else.

The first loss of his family and friends had broken him and it was only Cora-san's kindness that allowed him to put himself together as much as he had; the loss of Cora-san though had shattered him, all the pieces he'd so carefully glued back into place stabbing at his fingers when he tried to pick them up. It had taken years and the support of others to get back to even a semblance of the person he'd once been and even then there had still been pieces missing; somehow though, he knew that if he were to lose anyone else he wouldn't be able to survive it.

That was why he'd been so quick to trade himself in for his crew, with them free they couldn't be used against him and he'd fair far better as a captive then they would. Not to mention if things went well he hoped that he'd be able to learn some new information, of course, he knew that the enemy would also likely be seeking information as well and probably wouldn't hesitate to use force to try and obtain it. That could work out for him though, it was amazing how much people would tell you when they thought you were at their mercy.

As it turned out he was right, both about them wanting information and being willing to use force to try and get it; he'd been roughed up even before being questioned, his head slammed into a wall until blood ran down his face, which he found rather stupid; giving a prisoner a concussion wasn't very conductive towards getting coherent answers out of them. No one had bothered to ask his opinion on how they should beat him up though.

He was pretty sure his ribs were cracked as well thanks to a particularly vicious kick that had been aimed at his midsection, but since they didn't seem in any danger of piercing a lung at the current moment he ignored it, smirking through the pain as Hawkins finally started the questioning.

'What are the Alliances plans?' 'Where is everyone hiding?' 'Who exactly is part of the Alliance?' Each question was interspersed with more beatings when he refused to answer or gave nothing but a sarcastic comment in reply, but he remained unimpressed and unfazed. For pirates and a member of the Supernovas, Hawkins and his ilk were rather underwhelming when it came to the whole being intimidating thing. Or maybe it was Law's own fault for having spent too much time around much more intimidating people like Doflamingo.

When the question 'What is Straw Hat planning?' Was asked, he found himself unable to hold back a snort, truth be told he honestly wasn't sure Straw Hat was even capable of planning things; at least not beyond a basic go here, punch that. He certainly wasn't very good at following them, no, his talent in regards to plans seemed to be in throwing them off course.

One of Hawkins companions didn't seem to appreciate Law's amusement at the question, or maybe it was the mocking jab he'd made at the groups intelligence following his snort that he hadn't appreciated; whatever the reason, he'd drawn a knife and lunged forward, the blade slicing across Law's face and straight through his eye. Despite how well he'd been holding up until then, Law couldn't help but let out a hiss of pain at the unexpected attack, with blood clogging his sight and no access to his Devil Fruit it was impossible for him to tell how bad the damage was, but the sting of his eye didn't bode well.

Dimly he noticed Hawkins and his companions dragging the attacker out of the room, but he was too focused on keeping himself calm to do more than idly note it. An eye was not something he knew if he could fix, if it had been carefully removed he probably could put it back in place, but one that had been slashed he didn't know what he could do about. There was no point in panicking though, the damage might not even be that bad and even if it was, the loss of an eye was not some life-threatening injury.

The change in depth perception would take some getting used to, but there were plenty of pirates out there who had lost an eye and still got on just fine, Roronoa Zoro for one. There was a chance that the loss of some of his sight could have a negative effect on his ability to perform some medical procedures, but with his fruit to help him that could easily be dealt with.

Really the biggest worry Law had in regards to the possibility that his eye might be irrevocably damaged was not anything to do with how it would affect him, but rather how his crew would react. For all that he'd heard it said that his crew didn't really fit him, which wasn't entirely wrong, after all, they were quite a bit nicer and more openly affectionate than he was; there were still things they had in common, and one of those was their protectiveness towards those they cared about.

His crew had been angry, both at Doflamingo and also a little bit at him for sending them away, when they'd found out about his arm having been cut off; though thankfully they hadn't learned about his other injuries and quite frankly he hoped they never would. In a situation like the current one, where he had been injured after having traded himself in for them, they wouldn't just be angry, they'd feel guilty and that was much worse. Anger Law could deal with, his crew usually wasn't so foolhardy as to run off without any thought to get revenge, but guilt was much harder.

He might have been the captain of a crew known as the Heart Pirates, but he really wasn't any good at heart-to-heart type of things, he didn't know the right words to say to comfort someone over their perceived failures. Actions had always been his method of choice for helping his crew, he did things like patching up injuries and slicing up anyone who threatened his crew, and left things like physical affection and emotional reassurances to Bepo, Penguin and Shachi.

That wasn't going to work for the current situation though, not when it was those three who would likely need their guilt assuaged, so he'd have to do things differently. Of course, given his own precarious mental state, which had improved somewhat thanks to Doflamingo's defeat and the talk he'd had with Sengoku but was still a mess, he really wasn't qualified to help someone else deal with their emotional turmoil. That wouldn't stop him from trying though, he had a duty to his crew both as their captain and their friend.

Of course, there was still the possibility that his eye was fine or that the damage was superficial and something he could fix, but Law hadn't made it as far as he had in life without learning to assume and prepare for the worst possibility. It was better to make plans now that he might never have to use, then end up in a situation that you were unprepared for.

As important as planning things out was though, it seemed he'd have to wait a little bit longer to do that. If the figure approaching his cell with a ring of keys was any indicator, it seemed things were about to get interesting.


End file.
